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Food's Biggest Scam: The Great Kobe Beef Lie

These are cuts of the famous Kobe beef from Hyogo prefecture in Japan. Note the exquisite marbling of fat throughout. To see it in person, you need to go to Japan, because real Kobe beef cannot be found in the U.S. Photo: Wikipedia

Think you’ve tasted the famous Japanese Kobe beef?

Think again.

Of course, there are a small number of you out there who have tried it – I did, in Tokyo, and it is delicious. If you ever go to Japan I heartily recommend you splurge, because while it is expensive, it is unique, and you cannot get it in the United States. Not as steaks, not as burgers, certainly not as the ubiquitous “Kobe sliders” at your trendy neighborhood “bistro.”

That’s right. You heard me. I did not misspeak. I am not confused like most of the American food media.

I will state this as clearly as possible:

You cannot buy Japanese Kobe beef in this country. Not in stores, not by mail, and certainly not in restaurants. No matter how much you have spent, how fancy a steakhouse you went to, or which of the many celebrity chefs who regularly feature “Kobe beef” on their menus you believed, you were duped. I’m really sorry to have to be the one telling you this, but no matter how much you would like to believe you have tasted it, if it wasn’t in Asia you almost certainly have never had Japan’s famous Kobe beef.

2014 UPDATE: Changes have occurred regarding the status of Kobe beef in the United States. For the most current information, please read the 2014 piece, The New Truth About Kobe Beef, which has details that supersede information contain herein.

You may have had an imitation from the Midwest, Great Plains, South America or Australia, where they produce a lot of what I call “Faux-be” beef. You may have even had a Kobe imposter from Japan before 2010. It is now illegal to import (or even hand carry for personal consumption) any Japanese beef. Before 2010 you could import only boneless fresh Japanese beef, but none was real Kobe. Under Japanese law, Kobe beef can only came from Hyogo prefecture (of which Kobe is the capital city), where no slaughterhouses were approved for export by the USDA. According to its own trade group, the Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association in Japan, where Kobe Beef is a registered trademark, Macao is the only place it is exported to – and only since last year. If you had real Kobe beef in this country in recent years, someone probably smuggled it in their luggage.

“How is this possible?” you ask, when you see the virtues of Kobe being touted on television food shows, by famous chefs, and on menus all over the country? A dozen burger joints in Las Vegas alone offer Kobe burgers. Google it and you will find dozens of online vendors happy to take your money and ship you very pricey steaks. Restaurant reviews in the New York Times have repeatedly praised the “Kobe beef” served at high-end Manhattan restaurants. Not an issue of any major food magazine goes by without reinforcing the great fat Kobe beef lie. So how could I possibly be right?

The answer is sadly simplistic: Despite the fact that Kobe Beef, as well as Kobe Meat and Kobe Cattle, are patented terms and/or trademarks in Japan, these are neither recognized nor protected by U.S. law. As far as regulators here are concerned, Kobe beef, unlike say Florida Orange Juice, means almost nothing (the “beef” part should still come from cows). Like the recent surge in the use of the unregulated label term “natural,” it is an adjective used mainly to confuse consumers and profit from that confusion. Another popular premium food , Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, “The King of Cheeses,” suffers from the same problem and I examine it here. More recently, studies showed that in many major US cities, about half the restaurants and stores selling fish routinely substistuted cheaper imitation seafood for what was ordered and payed for, a story I recently exmained here for Forbes.com.

All this matters because the reason food lovers and expense account diners want Kobe beef, and are willing to pay a huge premium for it, is because of the real Kobe’s longstanding reputation for excellence. The con the US food industry is running is leading you to believe that what you are paying huge dollars for – like the $40 NYC “Kobe” burger – is somehow linked to this heritage of excellence. It’s not.

All the myths about cows getting massages and drinking beer while listening to classical music are just that, myths, but nonetheless real Kobe beef is produced under some of the world’s strictest legal food standards, whereas “domestic Kobe” beef production, along with that in Australia and South America, is as regulated as the Wild West. In Japan, to be Kobe requires a pure lineage of Tajima-gyu breed cattle (not any old Japanese breed crossbred with American cattle as is the norm here). The animal must also have been born in Hyogo prefecture and thus raised on the local grasses and water and terroir its entire life. It must be a bull or virgin cow, and it takes considerably longer to raise a Tajima-gyu for consumption than most other breeds, adding to the cost. It must be processed in a Hyogo slaughterhouse – none of which export to the US – and then pass a strict government grading exam. There are only 3000 head of certified Kobe Beef cattle in the world, and none are outside Japan. The process is so strict that when the beef is sold, either in stores or restaurants, it must carry the 10-digit identification number so customers know what particular Tajima-gyu cow it came from.

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Why call it “regulation”. This is a simple case of government not protecting the consumer from fraud. No government “regulation” required.

If you’d like to define something as Olmstead beef, perhaps cows you’ve personally given a massage, and then trademark that there is no need for any governmental rules or inspections to enforce that either. It’s a simple case of you noticing someone selling “Olmstead Beef” that isn’t “Olmstead Beef” and taking them to court (or the customer doing the same). No need to have some branch of goverment specifically sending out inspectors to all beef producers. Also if you specifically are NOT massaging the cows and yet are telling people you are that is fraud the customers can sue you for.

Well let’s be fair here there’s no problem with calling it American Kobe after all the cattle were brought here directly from Japan. The same breed they’ve had exclusively in Japan is know here in the USA, AND AUSTRAILIA, in fact they did this so the Japanese could have more supply of the great Wagyu Breed, AUSTRAILIA exports tons and tons of Wagyu to Japan and America would to if not for the mad cow scare that happened years ago. So if the Japanese are importing it from other countries it must be a pretty close rendition of what they have there. and it is great when raised properly like many of the American Kobe Ranchers do. However there is some massed produced American Kobe that may not be up to spec. But to bash the entire AMerican Kobe Breed is ridiculous. There are many fine producers out there, it is the grocery store chains and restaurants that are buying and selling inferior American Kobe that are really hurting the American Kobe Name. It is the breed and genetics of Wagyu that make it a great beef not the fact that the same breed is raised in one little part of the world. And another thing the government doesn’t regulate all other cattle breeds why should they regulate this one, if you are a informed consumer you can easily tell if it is good “AK” buy the degree of marbling compared to a normal steak, if t does not have substantially more marbling than a normal steak you find at the grocery store than it is not good “AK”, and as far as these reporters stirring up sh”t, I doubt seriously they have tried “AK” ( American Kobe ) from many sources or visited any “AK” ranches, they’ve probably just read all the different web articles that are it there and combined them for a “story” which is what this. Is one reporters opinions. Is certified Angus regulated by the government? The fact remains when you buy beef you could just as easily buy a inferior certified angus steak as you could a “AK” steak, you must find the good sources for “AK” and stay away from the bad like with any meat products. I think they should concentrate on singling out the producers who are raising inferior “AK” not bashing the thing as a whole. And specify what to look for when purchasing “American Kobe”. This breed has done nothing but get more and more popular and that’s not because it is not a very good product it is because it is a phonomal product when raised correctly and it will do nothing but grow in popularity because there is nothing else like it. Not other breed can compare.

Not almost no one does. I did and my friends too. And a long time ago. There’s actually detailed info about this on Wikipedia. One thing you need to know, is that people like to be fooled. Maybe you know about the Matrix effect. BTW Wagyu beef is safer in my opinion. And it has the same genes of the Kobe. I won’t compare the tastes as it’s a subjective thing. But I agree, if in Japan do as the Japanese do and get some Kobe.